Good afternoon. I'm Robert Sumichrast,
Dean of Virginia Tech's Pamplin
College of Business.
Thank you for joining us to
celebrate this historic groundbreaking
of the first building of
our Global Business and Analytics Complex.
This complex will
ultimately have four buildings,
two academic structures,
and two living learning communities.
Today we celebrate breaking ground
on the first of the academic structures,
the Data and Decision Sciences Building,
targeted to open in 2022.
Along with classrooms and faculty offices,
it will include specialized labs,
dozens of team rooms for
students from multiple
disciplines to work together,
data visualization classrooms, and
a commons where students,
faculty, industry leaders, and alumni
can come together in large and small groups.
Ultimately, the commons will be a connector,
joining this building to
the second academic building in the complex,
where most of Pamplin's faculty will be located.
The Data and Decision Sciences Building
will feature the most up-to-date technology
for remote collaboration.
It will be located near
the entrance to Virginia Tech
at Prices Fork Road and West Campus Drive.
This building will be
a hub for learning and discovery.
Not only for those of us
located here in Blacksburg,
but for our colleagues in Roanoke,
in Greater Washington, DC, and Virginia Tech's many
other locations. With such potential,
it's no wonder that this building
and this complex has drawn
such support from the State of Virginia
and from university leaders,
such as the one that you'll
be hearing from right now,
our University President, Tim Sands.
Thank you, Robert. I want to
express my great appreciation to
you and everyone who has
worked so hard to bring us this far.
This is an exciting and important milestone
for Virginia Tech and the Commonwealth.
The Global Business and Analytics
Complex exemplifies our Beyond
Boundaries vision to prepare a new generation
of leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs.
Integrating
business disciplines with data and
decision sciences will create the kind
of learning environment our faculty and
students need in the era of big data.
The complex will support
the Commonwealth's Tech
Talent Investment program,
developing future talent in
computer science and computer
engineering and other
technology-based and cybersecurity sectors.
The $79 million Data
and Decision Sciences Building
was funded by the General Assembly's
higher education package last year,
an investment in
our university that also supported
undergraduate enrollment growth in
Blacksburg and the
Innovation Campus in Alexandria.
On behalf of the university,
I want to thank the governor and
the legislature for their support.
And especially thank our
local representatives,
Senator Edwards,
Delegate Rush, and Delegate Hurst.
This groundbreaking is a testimony
to the power of public-private partnerships.
Spaces throughout the complex will bear
the names of
leading companies such as Deloitte,
EY, KPMG, and Marriott,
and the names of many generous
individuals who will play
an essential role in
a full realization of this vision.
The Global Business and Analytics Complex is
a top priority of
the university's fundraising campaign,
and we're working diligently to secure
the remaining $13 million
in private support
needed to complete the second building,
and fully relocate
the Pamplin College of Business.
The support of our donors will enhance
our ability to recruit
the best faculty and student talent
and advance our strong and growing reputation
for leadership in analytics and
decision sciences. It's now
my pleasure to introduce Julia Ross,
Dean of our College of Engineering.
Thank you, Tim. This important project
could not come at a more exciting
time for Virginia Tech.
It coincides with major growth
in our programs that
relate directly to
data analytics and decision-making.
To give just one example,
the number of Blacksburg-
based faculty in our department of
computer science is due to grow by
roughly 60 percent during the decade,
as we dramatically expand
the enrollment in related
undergraduate programs.
There's tremendous need
worldwide for expertise in
the rapidly developing fields that make up
data analytics and decision sciences.
We're happy to step forward in response.
That expertise will be nurtured in
the building we are launching today
and the broader complex that will follow.
This building will be a hub for collaboration
by students and faculty
from across Virginia Tech.
Engineering, business, science,
and all other fields are being
transformed by the unprecedented access to
information and insights
that are possible today.
Hello, I'm Ron Fricker,
Interim Dean of the College of Science
and a professor of statistics.
This summer, our college launched
the Academy of Data Science.
The academy will focus on both the science of
data science and data science
applied to all scientific disciplines.
The academy will serve as
a hub for data science,
a means for connecting our college with
other colleges and institutes
across Virginia Tech,
as well as a link to
industry and to government.
It's a major development and
a recognition that data science
has become a field of its own,
even as it's rapidly being
integrated into so many other disciplines.
Data science draws upon the theories,
the methods and the concepts of statistics,
mathematics,
computer science, and information science,
to extract knowledge and insights from data.
Data science and its partner,
decision science can
open up fresh opportunities
and actionable discoveries in
nearly any field you can imagine.
This building will help us
realize those opportunities and make
discoveries at Virginia Tech by serving as
a primary location to bring today's experts
together and educate tomorrow's leaders to
collaborate on
new methodologies and applications.
Across Virginia Tech from Blacksburg to
Roanoke to the Greater
Washington DC area and beyond,
we will strive to apply
insights derived from data and
decision science to today's challenges
in a way that benefits industries,
communities, and the world at large.
Thank you so much for taking
time to hear from us today.
Now please join my colleagues and me
virtually as we break ground
on the Data and Decision Sciences Building,
the first building in our Global Business
and Analytics Complex.
Okay, Deans, let's get
this project going. 3-2-1.